How To Create An Anonymous Collaborative Google Sheet

In a new piece on The Cut, writer Moira Donegan reveals that she created the "Shitty Media Men" list, the anonymous collaborative Google Sheets spreadsheet naming prominent men in media who have assaulted, harassed, or otherwise used been shitty to the women they work with. The list went viral overnight and helped end, or at least interrupt, the careers of several sexual harassers.

While several copies survive, the original sheet lasted just 12 hours, naming just 70 men, before Donegan deactivated it. Unrelated: Here's how to create your own anonymous collaborative Google Sheet, for whatever reason, who knows!

Make a New Google Account

Google Sheets lets you anonymously hand out "view" or "comment" access, but if you give someone edit access, they will also be able to see your account name. So if you want to stay hidden, make a new Google Account:

Share your spreadsheet

Maybe you only trust a certain audience to use your spreadsheet appropriately, and not publish your apple data on Reddit. Or maybe you want the whole world to know about these garbage apples. Google Sheets offers a range of privacy options.

To access this menu, click the blue "Share" button in the top right.

Hit the blue "Share" button in the top right to open the "Share with others" window.

If you only want to share with specific people, enter their email addresses under "People." Use the button on the right to select "Can edit," "can comment," or "can view."

By default, anyone with edit access can also invite new editors. To keep control over who can edit the list, click "Advanced" in the bottom right.

If you want to publicly share your spreadsheet, click "Get shareable link" inside the "Share with others" window. By default, this will change the privacy setting to "Anyone with the link can view." You can change that to "Anyone with the link can comment," or "Anyone with the link can edit."

To access this menu, click "Advanced" in the share window.

Now your spreadsheet is just as public or private as you like, and you can pool your knowledge on which apples should be avoided, or fired, or investigated for assault but the cops are useless and HR blames the victims.

Back to the unrelated topic from the intro: Donegan has previously reported on feminist issues at the New Yorker, the New Republic, and n+1 and her piece today is required reading for anyone who wants to express a single opinion about the list.

Down Votes

Only logged in users may vote for comments!

Get Permalink

Trending Stories Right Now

Escalator walkers and escalator standers are forever locked in struggle—they are like toilet paper over-the-roll installers and under-the-roll installers, or GIF pronouncers, or one-spacers and two-spacers, only brought head to head every day in the malls, airports, offices, train exits, and sundry moving staircases of the world.
And the real-world evidence, it seems, is on the side of the standers. Walkers are a bottleneck, and they’re slowing each other — and the standers — down.

Contracts kinda suck. While the telco industry is built on the back of two-year commitments, locking yourself into one provider for as long as 24 months never feels great. What if there’s a better deal? What if the service is terrible? What if you decide to abandon technology and live a nomadic life off the grid?